By Associated Press
Birmingham, AL – Officials at Bishop State Community College can't provide records to document how employees spent almost 262-thousand dollars in school money that was supposed to be used to purchase used textbooks from students. Barbara Smith, the school's business manager, said employees in charge of buying back books from students may have been able to produce receipts showing payments to students and deposits of cash left over from the program. But she said those records may have been lost. Smith said some financial records were lost or destroyed during a break-in at the college several years ago. She said some of the records may have been misplaced and could not be produced in response to a September fifth request by The Birmingham News. Smith said her staff will keep looking for records to show how employees handled the money. One employee who received cash that was meant to be used for repurchasing books, Marlene French, faces several unrelated criminal theft charges stemming from an ongoing investigation of fraud in the college's student aid program. State auditors are examining Bishop State's finances after two-year college officials found a number of problems.